Muscle Activation Techniques®

How muscles saved me from blowing out my knee

When I was 24 years old, I thought I had blown out my knee.  I was playing in a basketball game in a rec league at DePaul University.  During one play, I went up to dunk the ball and got hit in the chest by a defender.  I reached to grab the rib to regain my balance, but the hit knocked me hard enough that I couldn’t hang on.  I slipped, fell backwards, and stuck my leg out to land.  The problem was that I stuck my leg out completely straight and my body was falling overtop of it at a weird angle.

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By Charlie Cates, ago

Joint Injuries and Your Internal Suspension System

Joint injuries and injuries to passive tissues such as ligaments and discs are ever-present in our society today.  Whether it is rupturing a meniscus or an ACL or herniating a disc, it seems as if both competitive athletes and weekend warriors alike are commonly plagued by injuries to the passive tissues of their body.  With these types of injuries only becoming more commonplace from high school athletes to middle-aged rec-leaguers, the question of, “What can be done to help prevent these types of injuries?” naturally comes up.  Fortunately, there is something that can be done, and the answer lies in the active tissues of the body – the skeletal muscles.

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By Charlie Cates, ago

Mom, Retired IFBB Bikini Pro, Personal Trainer – Nicole Moneer – MAT® Testimonial

Check out this awesome MATRx® testimonial from retired IFBB Bikini Pro, NASM certified personal trainer, author, and mom Nicole Moneer!  Nicole describes her experience at Muscle Activation Schaumburg while going through the MATRx® process with Charlie.  She talks about the changes she has noticed in her hips and knees as well as how her body feels while she is working out.  Read about everything Nicole has to say about Muscle Activation Techniques® below!

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By Charlie Cates, ago

Pro Basketball Player – Quinton Chievous – MAT® Testimonial

Check out this awesome testimonial from pro basketball player Quinton Chievous!  Quinton did Muscle Activation Techniques® with Charlie in preparation for his second professional season.  After playing in the NBA’s development league with Memphis last year, Quinton is taking his talents overseas to play basketball professionally in Europe.  Quinton was a standout basketball player at Nile’s Notre Dame College Prep before heading to the University of Tennessee.  After graduating early from Tennessee, Quinton finished his collegiate basketball career while also earning his masters degree at Hamptom University.  Check out his testimonial below on his experience at Muscle Activation Schaumburg!

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By Charlie Cates, ago

Compensation – How Your Feet Can Be Creating Back Issues

Compensation often gets a bad rap.  It is portrayed in a negative light as the demise of your orthopedic health and something that needs to be eviscerated by any means necessary.  However, compensation is actually a brilliant way for your body to remain highly functioning from one moment to the next.  Without compensation, we would likely have far more physical issues throughout our entire body.  The caveat, though, is that we may not want to compensate in the same manner for an extended period of time.  Not only can this put excess stress on certain muscles, it can also stress your joints.

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By Charlie Cates, ago

Getting Your Muscles Back To Par

When I was first introduced to Muscle Activation Techniques® in 2010, I had never seen it before or heard of it before.  But, the goal of MAT® fit perfectly with an idea I had developed about 18 months earlier.  See, throughout high school and college, I was really big into sports performance.  Initially, my interest stemmed from wanting to improve my own performance, but it soon grew into wanting to help others improve their performance, as well.

By my senior year of college, I was working with a number of sports teams and individual athletes on campus.  I was also constantly running experiments on myself, the most notable of which was testing the hypothesis that if I could just get my body working the way it was designed to work, then I would be able to perform at a much higher level than I ever was before.

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By Charlie Cates, ago

Are you a candidate for MAT®? Answer these three questions to find out!

At Muscle Activation Schaumburg, we often receive the question of, “How do I know if Muscle Activation Techniques® is something I should be doing?”.  This is a very valid question because MAT® is something that helps a wide variety of people, from professional athletes to professional parents, from elementary school kids to executives, and from the most active among us to those who are far more sedentary.  All of these populations seem to benefit from MAT®, so how can you know if MAT® is something that you are a candidate for?

When it comes to the “who” of MAT®, we generally see that our clients fall into one of three categories here at Muscle Activation Schaumburg.  But, the category that you fall into depends on how you answer the following three questions.  If you want to know if you are a candidate for MAT®, ask yourself these three questions: (more…)

By Charlie Cates, ago

4 Early Warning Signs That You Need MAT®

As a Muscle Activation Techniques® practitioner, I often get asked the question, “What is MAT®?”.  This is then usually followed up by, “How do I know if I need it?”.  Fortunately, there are many signs that you may benefit from MAT®.  While some signs and symptoms may appear after needing MAT® for years, I want to discuss four early warning signs that may present themselves before you experience any bigger issues.  If you notice any of these warning signs within yourself, that can be a clear indicator that your body is in need of Muscle Activation Techniques®.

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By Charlie Cates, ago